PUBG’s Road to Launch Is Paved With Lots of Testing

Tick, tock. 2017 is quickly coming to a close, and the folks behind PUBG are still adamant about the game getting an official launch on PC (out of early access) and also on Xbox Game Preview.

Today, the developer penned a post reiterating their launch commitment and painting a picture of what the next two months will look like. Get ready to go hands-on with vaulting and climbing in the next few weeks.

Before we dive into what the next two months look like, let’s take a look at the last patch before the official launch. It’s not a big one, but it fixes a few nagging issues.

Gameplay

– Decreased the Starting Island item spawn levels in order to adjust the item balance on the Northeast side of Erangel

Bug Fixes

– Eliminated the fire animation and effect that occurred in the Starting Airplane when a player was on fire from a molotov cocktail– Fixed a bug that enabled a character to hold a main weapon and frying pan simultaneously– Fixed a spectator mode bug of flickering weapon UI icons

Vaulting hits test server in a “few weeks”

The much anticipated vaulting feature is almost ready. The next two months are all about optimization and integrating new features. Large-scale tests will be run on at least three occasions according to the PUBG team.

The devs say they want major features like vaulting to undergo at least two to four weeks worth of testing. Vaulting is a game-changing feature that instantly transforms PUBG’s core gameplay loop. The community will help find all the bugs and exploits the dev team missed.

Here’s a basic layout of what the developers have planned.

1st phase: Focus on testing vaulting & climbing.2nd phase: More testing of vaulting & climbing, test other new content and features.3rd phase: All new content and features including the desert map.

According to the post, that 1st phase is coming either in late October or early November. Based on this time frame, we’re looking at late November or early December for the official PC/Xbox One launch.

The devs also gave us an update on the leaderboard situation. Optimization continues on the leaderboard system. Right now, it’s looking like the new season won’t start until October 20th. Dammit, Bluehole. You’re not tracking the five chicken dinners I won this weekend.

The long, agonizing wait for vaulting is almost over. Soon, we’ll be jumping in and out of building windows. Hopping over cars. And getting even more absurd kills while we do it.